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Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and newly-elected President Mahmoud Abbas are about to meet at the invitation of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik. Although both sides have started pulling back from the four and a half years of bloodshed and violence: they are at odds over the scope of concessions in this phase. About to make her entrance on the new Middle East stage is the new U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The Israeli town of Sderot and other villages and settlements finally enjoyed a quiet weekend. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas deployed hundreds of his security forces to prevent the launching of Qassam rockets and mortars at the Israeli towns and villages. The terrorist groups of Hamas and Islamic Jihad say Israel must pay a price for their halting the violence. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon held the weekly cabinet session in the town of Sderot, which has been hit by some 600 Qassam rockets launched from across the border in the Gaza Strip. Elsewhere in the Southern Gaza Strip and the West Bank, clashes continued between the terrorists and IDF troops. Interviewed on Israel Television's IBA News, David Essing assessed the latest developments with anchor Yochanan Elrom.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has entered the ‘make or break’ phase. IDF troops and tanks have been ordered ‘on standby’ to silence the mounting Palestinian attacks in and from the Gaza Strip. However, Israel’s security cabinet is taking Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at his word - that he sincerely wants to stop the terrorism and get back to the conference table. Either the new Palestinian leader delivers on his pledge or Israeli officials say the IDF will do what it takes to protect the country’s citizens.

Newly elected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, or Abu Mazen, is about to call on the fanatic Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations in the Gaza Strip to call off their attacks on Israel. On his first visit to Gaza since the January 9th election, Abbas has reportedly ordered Palestinian security forces to halt the rocketing of Israeli towns and villages. His security forces were said to be taking up position in the areas of Gaza used by the terrorists to launch Qassam rockets and mortars. However, on the ground there has been little change in the Palestinian shelling. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon traveled to the Erez Crossing to Gaza to meet top IDF commanders. He again warned of the consequences if the Palestinian attacks continue. What are the chances that Mahmoud Abbas will succeed? Israeli left and right wing Knesset members are split about the new leader’s real intentions.

The residents of Sderot say they've had enough and held a general strike to protest Prime Minister Sharon's failure to halt the Palestinian shelling of their town from over the border in the Gaza Strip. Wearing black ribbons they gathered in the town square for prayers. Most of the six Israelis murdered in last Thursday's suicide bombing lived in Sderot which has been continually terrorized by the Qassam rockets and mortars from Gaza.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas now says he has ordered his security forces to prevent attacks against Israel; Israeli officials say 'We'll watch for results'.

Israel and the Palestinians are both on the move. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has forged a new Israeli cabinet bound on withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements. The Knesset vote was 58 in favor, 56 including 13 Likud rebels against, while 6 MKs abstained. Sharon squeaked through with the help of left wing Yachad, Arab MKs and former Shinui MK Yossi Paritsky. In another surprise vote, UTJ MK Meir Porush abstained. Meanwhile in the Palestinian Autonomy, President-elect Mahmoud Abbas took 62 % of the vote in yesterday’s historic election. Outside the Knesset, 15,000 rightwing demonstrators protested against the withdrawal.

Shabak Security Chief Avi Dichter presented a grave picture in his semi-annual report to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Dichter analyzed the current Palestinian escalation in Gaza, new Palestinian terror threats and the threat from Jewish extremists during the upcoming withdrawal from Gaza and four West Bank settlements.

In a briefing to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reviewed the current state of his political and military thinking. In addition to warning that the IDF will react very severely, if the Palestinians attack Israeli civilians during next year’s evacuation of the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements, Sharon also took the wraps off several other burning issues.

Where does Tony Blair’s visit and the reactions of Ariel Sharon and the Palestinian leaders reveal about where things are headed in the post-Arafat era? The endgame of the current international drive is the establishing of an independent Palestinian state. The foreign leaders, coming on their political pilgrimage to Israel and the Palestinian Authority after Arafat’s death, are coming with the message of ‘Carpe Diem’ - Seize the Day!’ Make no mistake, the U.S. mired in the quicksand of Iraq, is also on board. The resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is now perceived as a must for a united stand against the global war against terrorism. And it is against this backdrop that U.S. President George W. Bush has spoken about the need for a Palestinian state in the Palestinian areas if peace is to reign in the region.

IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon has reacted sharply to calls by settler leader Pinhas Wallerstein and others to resist the Gaza withdrawal and for IDF soldiers to disobey orders for the evacuation. Attorney-General Menachem Mazzuz has ordered an enquiry into whether Wallerstein should be indicted for calling on settlers to resist the withdrawal without violence and be ready to go to prison if need be. In a briefing to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, General Yaalon said the IDF Advocate-General conducts an enquiry into every case where an innocent Palestinian has been hit by IDF gunfire and the report reaches his desk. At the briefing, a senior IDF intelligence officer revealed that sixty percent fewer Israelis have been killed by Palestinian suicide bombers this year.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon presented an optimistic forecast for the year 2005. Addressing the Herzliya Conference, Sharon pledged to work for peace with the Palestinians spoke of peace with the Palestinians. In his first major address since the death of Yasser Arafat, the Prime Minister said it was possible for an Israeli and a Palestinian state to live in peace. However, a new and responsible Palestinian leadership must eliminate terrorism and incitement.

In the Gaza Strip, five IDF soldiers were killed and another six were injured, one critically, when Palestinian terrorists tunneled under an Israeli position and detonated more than a ton of explosives. The blast totally demolished the post which was manned by Israeli Muslim Bedouins who serve in the Desert Reconnaissance Battalion. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz held urgent consultations with the IDF Chief of Staff and Shabak Security Director and then ordered a series of localized retaliatory actions. For the first time since Arafat’s death, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has criticized the Palestinian leadership for not doing enough to halt the violence.At the same time, Analyst David Essing believes the latest tunnel attack will spur the IDF into finding a high-tech solution to the Palestinian use of tunneling as a tactic of warfare.

Explosive tunnels - a new and deadly tactic in Palestinian warfare against the IDF in the Gaza Strip.IDF military planners will now be forced to speed up a high-tech counter-measure to uncover tunnels packed by explosives which can be detonated under Israeli military positions or civilian sites.

The official news that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will not be taken off his life-support system was taken in stride by Israel. When Arafat was flown to Paris in serious condition last week, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon instructed his cabinet ministers to clam up, in light of the delicate situation. Jerusalem has been in a ‘wait and see’ mode - not wanting to be accused of intervening in the Palestinians’ internal affairs. The IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya’alon did refer to what he called a new Middle East crossroad when he briefed the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has now entered a new historic juncture. Three roads now intersect; optimists hope it will lead from the current battleground to a new and different landscape; the pessimists feel it will be more of the same.

The Israeli Cabinet has discussed the new situation in light of Yasser Arafat being flown to Paris for urgent medical treatment. At the weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Sharon spoke about the possibility of resuming the Roadmap peace process, if a new Palestinian leadership takes over. On the other hand, the Prime Minister was adamant that Arafat would not be buried in Jerusalem as long as Sharon is in office. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom also weighed in on how Israel should deal with a new Palestinian leadership, if Arafat drops out.

Could the Israeli-Palestinian conflict be on a new threshold? Hopefully turning from terrorism and bloodshed to negotiation and peace? Or might the Palestinians be headed for a bloody power struggle with the extremists gaining the upper hand? This is the question Israelis are now asking if and when a new Palestinian leadership succeeds the reign of Yasser Arafat. In what is viewed as a conciliatory step, Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Ala has telephoned Ariel Sharon to apprise him of the situation. The Israeli Prime Minister offered all possible medical aid.

UNRWA, the U.N. organization operating in the Palestinian refugee camps in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, actually employs Hamas terrorists. This has been disclosed by Israel’s former Ambassador to the U.N., Dr. Dore Gold, who told Israel Television English News that there is ample documentation of this situation. The disclosure follows Israel Air Force video which shows Palestinian terrorists using a U.N. ambulance to transport Qassam rockets and launchers. Jerusalem is calling for an official U.N. enquiry and the firing of UNRWA commissioner Peter Hansen, who Israeli officials say is pro- Palestinian.

‘Days Of Penitence’, the major IDF operation to prevent Qassam rockets from hitting the Israeli town of Sderot, entered its fourth day by keeping pressure on the Palestinian terrorists. Over fifty Palestinians most of them armed, have been killed. The counter-offensive was launched after Qassam rockets blew up in Sderot on the eve of Succot murdering two small children; another woman was shot dead by terrorists and two IDF soldiers were also killed. Commenting on the situation, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared the Qassams will be stopped.In another development, Palestinians have been filmed transporting Qassam rocket launchers in a United Nations ambulance.